Just one week in November. Three double albums by three of the legends of rock. Paul McCartney's Back in the US may not be getting a UK release until March next year but by the wonder of the Internet it hardly matters to fans when an album sits on a shelf. If it is out, it is out! All three albums have similarities and marked contrasts. Ex-Beatle and Dylan both released a live document, but McCartney's is from the recently highly acclaimed US tour where the roadies just arrived home whereas the roadies for Dylan's release are probably long dead, the tapes of that particular tour being some twenty seven years old. Mitchell, like the other two, sings nothing we haven't heard or bought before. Her take, though, is a complete reinvention; her classics done in the studio with a fully blown orchestra.
All three are reinventions. Mitchell in that sense exceeds all the demands. The raison d'etre was reinvention. Dylan has always been reinventing, making an already huge catalogue even more immense by so restructuring words and melodies that songs can sound nothing like the original, if within the Dylan art form there can ever be such a thing as an original. His live shows are so much more intriguing, if occasionally shambolic, as a result. With McCartney you feel for the poor band who has to play Beatle parts, too sacred to be too finger loose and fancy free, resigned in faithful reproduction to never to be a substitute for John, George and Ringo.
The last few years have seen some changes in the life of Sir Paul McCartney. His beloved Linda passed away and at the age of 60, the friendly granddad of pop got his leathers out and returned to The Cavern for some good old rock 'n' roll. He fell in love and put together a kick-ass young band to record his most potent album since Driving Rain. On the back of all that, the newlywed headed out across America on a critically acclaimed live extravaganza.
Here is the record of the tour; thirty-five songs, most of which are household names, and interestingly, twenty of which are Beatles' songs. Of course it is more than good, but where it lacks is in any new slants on the old sounds. Where it is most satisfying is in the three songs off Driving Rain and then the acoustic set where familiar live chestnuts like "Blackbird," "Every Night" and "Fool On The Hill" are complemented by the rarer "Mother Nature's Son," the recent soundtrack tune "Vanilla Sky" and a tribute to the latest Beatle to be taken from us, George's "Something."
Not that the success of the stripped back parts says anything about the band. There is no doubt that Rusty Anderson and Abe Laboriel, Jr. add a youthful edge to the arrangements. Everything has its worth but unlike Dylan's Live 1975 this is not an essential addition to the art of Paul McCartney. Whereas Wings Across America, a quarter of a century ago revealed a band in the midst of something new looking back, this is almost completely retrospective. Then again Dylan himself has been a little too dependent on his sixties output in recent years. "And in the end..." as a document of a 60 year old performing as well as ever, it is more than worth the admission.
Similar sounding releases
2004Creamy VelourAngel's Guise
2003Bill MalloneeLocket Full of Moonlight
2003Ringo StarrRingo Rama
1999WilcoSummerteeth
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2005The SightsThe Sights
